What failed in this pic?

The left tree has lighting & focus issues.

There are no margins on the left and right sides of the image.
A bit more margin is needed to allow purchasers to create their own layouts.

Congratulations on your first sale! I don’t want to sound like I’m a veteran here, but I am a professional and having what I believe is great success in the less than 2 yrs since starting.

This is a nice photo, the attachment doesn't allow assessing true focusing. I have to assume you are certain the shot is razor sharp. You’ll soon learn that in this forum everyone has different opinions on photos. Here is mine, personally I like it… but it’s too tight around the edges, limiting what a buyer can do with it. When you shoot, shooting too much should never be an issue, go tight, wide, vertical, horizontal, palm on the right and left… later you can pick the best of each angle and ensure you will have at least 4 distinctive submissions. On another personal point, I guess for a story on healthy and unhealthy palm trees, this could be a good photo, but hard to think of what else.

Something clearly has happened particularly in the last year, where Adobe algorithms are rejecting work without cause, and when you resubmit gets approved. This really kills the fun in doing this, but I choose to believe Adobe is fully aware and is trying to control and balance a lot of the “junk” and AI junk they are getting.

Be patient, keep shooting and demand the most of you. Use AI for good tiles and keywords and save them to resubmit, only if you are absolutely clear there’s no technical issues with your shots. 

Frankly, I stopped asking why a shot was not approved for technical issues the first year, people with good intentions input personal opinions that defy my own, or the fact that I’ve been shooting professionally for over 30 years. My advice to you is to be your absolute best critic, and don’t get hung up on any photo, this is a numbers game. Commit to a set number of work every month (mine is 100)

and stick to it. keep a positive and creative attitude and mindset, and again… Be very patient!

Best of luck to you!

Francisco   

Color balance is too yellow and there is a thin white border at the bottom of the image. If that was there is the version you submitted, it would result in a rejection.